492 OBSERVATIONS ON ETHER AND CHLOROFORM. 
be content to take the good and bad together, making one balance 
against the other. 
However, putting expense out of the question, the result then 
becomes the only consideration, and this give no cause for com- 
plaint. That ether has no inflammatory action T am certain ; that 
its operation is not of that order which is generally attributed to 
stimulants, I may from repeated proofs confidently assert. In vete- 
rinary practice it seems to supply a void which has long been felt. 
The symptoms which characterize colic too frequently are no more 
than the commencement of enteritis, &c. ; and it is with me a doubt 
if any portion of the digestive canal can be inflamed without colic 
being present, particularly during the early stages. To obtain some 
therapeutic which should relieve the spasm without the hazard of 
aggravating the disorder that too probably may succeed, was 
therefore much to be desired, and for this purpose various com- 
binations have been proposed. Against the great majority of 
these, however, it may be advanced, that in proportion as they 
were safe, so also were they uncertain ; either too mild to touch 
the disorder, or too slow in their operation to cut short its pro- 
gress. Not one of them, perhaps, is such as will, in any degree, 
affect the disease, which at the time, we fear, is concealed behind 
the more violent symptom. Such, however, is ether, which in 
enteritis, &c. I would unhesitatingly administer, and from its em- 
ployment expect only the best results : indeed, upon it I would 
chiefly rest my hopes of success. The speed with which it acts 
is also not to be overlooked, for often in less than twelve hours 
has colic terminated fatally in enteritis. The most immediate 
antispasmodic, ether is also, in my conviction, the most powerful 
of antiphlogistics. For the present you must accept my assertion 
of this fact ; but I invite my profession to put it to the test. How 
far it may hereafter be superseded by chloroform, I cannot say ; 
but if the result gained in a single instance be corroborated by future 
trials, probably chloroform will become one of the most valued 
agents in the pharmacopoeia. Mixed with olive oil, it makes a 
pungent but at the same time a pleasant drink, and one to w'hich 
a child would hardly object. As an antispasmodic for infants, I 
can imagine it would be of the highest utility; and in the fits to 
which children are liable, I can suppose that ether might be found 
to be invaluable. The dose, of course, it is not my province to 
suggest ; but in such cases upon dogs, pups being very subject to 
disorders that are analogous to those affecting the young of the 
higher animal, I have proved it to be of the greatest benefit. In 
such cases I employ it as enema; but for the human being it would 
require to be much more diluted, as, in man, experiments made 
